In some situations, a set of media data may be encoded in a way that is not suitable for distribution over a particular medium or for distribution to a particular type of device. For example, a bit rate of the set of media data may be too high for distribution to cellular telephones. In such situations, a distributor of the set of media data re-encodes the set of media data such that the set of media data is suitable for distribution over the particular medium or to the particular type of device. In other words, the distributor of the set of media data transcodes the initial set of media data into a transcoded set of media data.
A variety of encoding parameters govern how a set of media data is encoded in a media coding format. Example encoding parameters include a maximum keyframe interval, a minimum keyframe interval, a maximum number of B-frames between keyframes, which entropy decoder to use, and so on. Use of different values for encoding parameters to transcode initial sets of media data into transcoded sets of media data results in differences in data compression and/or differences in similarity between the initial sets of media data and the transcoded sets of media data.